[ The following post reflects only my beliefs. ]

As of late, there has been much discussion surrounding the assumed “conflict of interest” Jack Dorsey must have caused with Square’s partnership with Starbucks in relation to Jack’s investment in Sightglass Coffee. It is truly amazing to see what types of theories people can come up with, but one must understand why Jack first invested in Sightglass Coffee to truly wrap their heads around this “coffee love triangle.”

I believe:

Jack Dorsey invested in Sightglass Coffee for the purpose to better understand the “intersection” by which a barista (merchant) and a coffee drinker (consumer) interact whenever a transaction is made. That one moment, defines what millions of merchants and consumers experience each and every single day. This experience is the result of a behavior that can not simply be erased from commerce, but is ripe for innovation. At this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Jack further emphasized the importance of this interaction by saying, “Life happens at intersections; it’s important to recognize what’s happening in that intersection and determine what to do in it.”

Jack is known to enjoy walking through the city. I can only imagine all of the intersections by which people interact, that he observes and takes notice of, and ultimately learns from, daily. These intersections serve as an ongoing foundational education to how people exchange money, in real-time.

I am thankful to have a degree in Architecture with an emphasis on Urban Design as this background allows me as a technologist, to think about things from a different perspective, especially “intersections.” It allows me to constantly question human behavior as it relates to technology and how those intersections between two people, technologies or people and technologies is improved. Much like architecture whereas spaces are created, every last detail effects how one interacts, behaves and ultimately experiences said intersection. By understanding how people interact with and behave traditionally, one can better understand how to make that experience better, easier, and more fluid.

I believe:

Jack utilizes Sightglass Coffee as a human observation lab. It allows for him to observe, to test, to ask questions, and to learn better how to innovate an experience/intersection that while has traditional behaviors tied to it, historically is burdensome to so many businesses and consumers.

So one might ask, if the Starbucks, Sightglass Coffee and Square “love triangle” is a “conflict of interest?” If it were, then every coffee shop utilizing Square also causes this question to be asked. Jack’s relationship with Sightglass is one that is both, strategic and everlasting. As long as Jack has an interest in this “intersection” he will have a need for Sightglass Coffee and the teachings it offers.

While Square continues to roll out innovation after innovation around this critical human intersection of exchanging money, many others are also innovating in this space. Dwolla, Chirpify and Refurrl (ARK Challenge Startup) each have their own take on how the intersection between merchant and consumer happens and can be improved.

We all have intersections that we can and must observe and learn from. What are the intersections that you pay attention to? How are you innovating that intersection? From Doctors and Patients, Architects and the People that they design for, to the Teacher and the Student, “intersections” are happening everywhere. Take a moment and observe. You’ll learn something.

[ Image Credit: Dave Getzschman ]

Please disregard spelling/grammar errors and ‘rambleness’ as this was a Facebook comment (that wasn’t accepted by Facebook due to too many characters) in response to the following post within the NWAEA Facebook group:

Nick Shared: “Ecosystem 101: The Six Necessary Categories To Build The Next Silicon Valley“

Douglas Commented: “Thanks for the share. Out of the six categories, how do you think Arkansas and/or NWA in particular stack up? What category do you think we excel at and which needs the most work?”

Here is my attempt at answering your question, Douglas:

(Each point will feed or feed off another. That is how ecosystems work, afterall.)

1. Market – While the number of entrepreneurs and startups has continued to grow over the past few years, there is still a relatively low market here in NWA and Arkansas as a whole. Without a Market (Deal Flow) you do not have…

2. Capital – Believe it or not, but I bet there is more money in NWA per capita than anywhere else in the U.S. more than 3% of the U.S’s Billionaires live here. Think about that fact alone. Add in the 500,000+ people in NWA and there is likely much more money out there. Due to bad investments in the past by inexperienced wealthy, a lot of money has just been sidelined (kept in savings or something similar). The key here is to create a healthy Market for this Capital to become more accessible. In order for this to happen though, we need more…

3. People – There are many truly amazing people here doing amazing things. The problem is that it has been difficult to not only retain other talent but also attract talent from elsewhere. Currently, we have startups who share people, swap people, are the same people, etc. This will take place anywhere and everywhere. Here though, we need a lot more People. People help grow startups. People increase the value of startups. People start startups. People bring networks which bring access to Capital. People are key in creating a Market. But in order to have People, we must have a great…

4. Culture – There has been the start of a great culture built here in NWA and in other places around Arkansas. It is going to take much more, though. Time is a factor, sure. There are many things that can take place though, now. While the University of Arkansas and other colleges in the state have business schools and speak a bit to entrepreneurship, there is no attachment to the Startup Communities themselves. Cities and other local governments bicker, fail to get along, would never collaborate, and overlook this generation of entrepreneurs. City Chambers are starting to get the hint, but it is still competitive, city to city, and fees charged to entrepreneurs can really hurt one. More organizations, clubs, networks, coffee groups, etc need to form. Resources need to be shared. Of course many of these things are happening, but the community as a whole needs to take part, contribute, be active and involved and strive to grow, facilitate and continue to become and grow into a strong culture. In order to do that statewide we need a great…

5. Infrastructure – There is a complete disconnect between Bentonville and Fayetteville and Fort Smith and Conway/Little Rock and Pine Bluff and Jonesboro. Whether it is because of competitiveness or communication, it needs to be solved with an infrastructure that allows communication and the sharing of resources, Culture, People, Capital and Markets. It still baffles me to know that there are still some places in Arkansas that are unable to get internet. That is a clear infrastructure problem that needs to be fixed. But to fix infrastructure problems like this, it probably would take…

6. Regulation – I believe that Regulation is a byproduct of the all the former and until each of the former reach a certain level, Regulation serves little value. This generation has never relied on government before, how can we blame government now. Once the former become present and growing at a significance level, politics will take notice and begin to speak to the issues that we all feel like Regulations can help fix. The Iceberg Coworking Facility Opening / ARK Accelerator Launch Day was a perfect example of all of the former being present and getting politics to take notice.

It takes a mindset that we must improve each of these 6 traits in parallel and indefinitely, in order for us to continue to become a great home for entrepreneurs and startups. It is going to take our communities and society as a whole to buy in emotionally, and support entrepreneurship. The media, local governments, the community at large, all play a part in this. We can do this. Arkansas can do this.

I use Fab as a precedent for many conversations on a daily basis. It is one of my favorite companies for its founders, its model, its innovation and most of all because of its transparency. I am regularly called ‘J-Fab’ at Acumen Brands, and that just speaks to the CrackerJack in me.

Jason Goldberg and Co are doing a number of great things. For one, they stay true to their mission statement and it bleeds from every pixel of their site and experience. Secondly, they have been, if not the first, certainly the best at Commerce and Content. Before you snicker, they have innovated what many are trying to still figure out and establish strategies for. Not only are they focusing on how Commerce and Content play with one another in order to facilitate consumer engagement and build Lifetime Value (LTV) they have flipped the entire table. Fab has made it a point to curate such high quality design that truly makes you smile in order for its Commerce to actually serve as its Content.

Each week day at 9:57am, I receive a beautiful email that serves as a design magazine. I expect it at the same time each day, and when it is late, I notice.

Let me get to my point; this beautiful commerce engine, disguised as a design magazine can become even better, enable me to purchase more, and to Fab’s mission, make me smile more. Here is one way how:

In the past 5 months, I have spent $318.40 on Fab.com. In those 5 months I have bought only 1 thing. Prints. It is the niche I have found that suits my needs, wants and curiosity the most. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy receiving the daily digest of everything, BUT, Fab could make a lot more money off of me if they segmented me based on my visiting, browsing, and purchasing habits.

Let me break my purchasing habits down:

5 Months = $318.40
13 Prints = $24.49/Print
7 Orders = $45.48/Order
5 Months = $63.67/Month
5 M-F Emails/Week = 21.67 Emails/Month = $2.94/Daily Email
2.6 Orders/Month = 12% Conversion Rate

Each day, I open my email, smile and enjoy everything, but always click the prints to open in a new browser tab. From there, I decided to purchase, or talk my self out of purchasing a print.

I suggest that in email preferences, Fab add two new email preferences: Niche (Much like their shops but drilled down further) and/or Purchase Habits

Niche would allow me to drill down to a product type that I am interested in receiving. Maybe it is only one type or could be multiple types. That way my discovery process doesn’t have to included feathery earrings and glow in the dark condoms if I dont want them or am forever uninterested. What it would in turn do is allow a consumer to not only have a more enjoyable experience, but also target themselves to certain niches allowing for more elaborate marketing strategies to be applied to said consumer. Also, the likelihood for a purchase to be made should increase dramatically.

Purchasing Habits would work the same way. Instead of me preselecting from a list of product types, I am opting in to the content in said email by making said purchases. In my case, I would receive Print and Notebook/Sketchbook/Moleskin emails (prior to this 5 month window I bought several notebooks). I would enjoy these emails and the likely hood of me making more frequent purchases would elevate, my lifetime value would go up and because I am so happy, my viral coefficient would sky rocket.

Of course, we are in an age of niche commerce/curated commerce. I am an architectural designer turn tech intrapreneur. I am both, fascinated and passionate about design. All aspects of it. Fab does a great job with the design demographic. My suggestions only come from care and constructive criticism. I am a believer in constant iteration along with constant attention to the details and while my topic is deep in the details, it is one I believe would effect many in a positive manner.

What companies do you think do a great job of Commerce and Content? How can ecommerce stakeholders become better at leveraging/integrating Commerce and Content, in one strategy/ecommerce solution?

In preparation for two talks about The Iceberg I recently gave, I prepared the following slides. With the supplemental slides, I would like to explain the larger role that I believe The Iceberg and coworking has within this community.

Keep in mind, this is just a brief overview, for the sake of a blog post. I will soon follow-up on closer looks into many of the following items.

There is an Iceberg in NWA? The Iceberg is a coworking facility, located here, in Fayetteville, AR, that celebrates all of the hard work, growth, learning, and persistence it takes to reach success. It offers an open floor plan with many general office amenities. Furthermore, The Iceberg is an initiative of the Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneurship Alliance.

How is it sustainable? At first you might not see the sustainable traits of The Iceberg. I want to explain its sustainable traits, environmentally, economically, socially, and culturally, and how they factor into The Iceberg’s larger role.

Environmentally – When we found the space, it hadn’t been used for years. There were no walls built out, there was no electricity nor was there any HVAC. It appeared similar to a dungeon without the flaming sticks on the walls. This was a place in downtown Fayetteville, in the same building as many residential and commercial properties, but had never been taken advantage of. We elected to reuse the space and turn what started as a “dungeon” into a world-class coworking facility.

Similar to reusing the space, many items were reused from other parts of the exisiting building that were scheduled to be rid of. We chose to implement as many items as possible into the floorplan of The Iceberg.

The Iceberg is built around “community.” Almost every single thing within the space is shared. From printers, projectors and computers, to desks, books and the space as a whole. By sharing, freelancers, startups and small businesses don’t have to worry about the overhead of purchasing the things on their own, as well as cuts down on material and energy usage.

Economically – Many see The Iceberg as simply a great place to work. Others see it as an opportunity to leverage the community’s collective expertise, experience, resources, perspective and support in order to help build their businesses.

This is also a place where jobs are created. Moments of serendipity happen at any point in a day at The Iceberg. What starts as asking a member with a background in accounting turns out to be a job for the accountant and a resource for the member needing help. An entrepreneur who needs a website created can quickly reach out to a web designer member and quickly turn an idea into a paying job for another member. A local economy within The Iceberg emerges.

Socially – A place to meet like minded people. – Whether you are an entrepreneur, a programmer, a sustainability professional, a designer, or consultant, you will find like minded people when you come to The Iceberg. Through various meetups, events and other social functions, The Iceberg is quickly becoming a place where a diverse set of organizations, groups and individuals come to get together and build and engage with their communities.

When entrepreneurs or freelancers come to Northwest Arkansas, The Iceberg has a great chance of being that place known for being the hangout for these types of people. Whether it is working to meet a deadline or watching a Razorback game, creating a place that is like home for entrepreneurs and independent professionals is key to the community building that The Iceberg is working to achieve.

Culturally – The Iceberg is a place where anyone with any background can work alongside each other. A place where an accountant can work next to a skateboard manufacturer founder. A place where this dynamic helps create the diverse set of resources The Iceberg is able to provide. By celebrating the fact that anyone and everyone can work alongside each other, we are able to increase the possibilities so serendipitous moments, increase the access to perspective, resources, and expertise, as well as offer a higher level of support from the community.

Most importantly, The Iceberg is a place built on the ideal of “support.” Each member, sponsor, partner and donor takes part in this ideal in some way. Whether it is providing a resource, offering your advice, celebrating a fellow member’s success, or simply a motivational pep talk, support is key and evident in every aspect of The Iceberg.

How does all of this add up? Up to this point, I have discussed what would be ideal, supported by cases in which The Iceberg hits on those ideals. More important than the ideals are the results. Below, I want to shed light on some of the preliminary findings from The Iceberg’s first 2 months of operation.

Members – Today, we have 35 members with a diverse set of backgrounds including, design, programming, consulting, photography, retail, accounting, education and much more.

Member Companies – From those 35 members, there are at least 15 unique companies. The companies are in various stages of growth and are in a multiple industries. These companies range from being venture backed, profitable, to being idea or seed stage companies.

Annual Member Company Revenue – While this number is low (I was only able to poll 5 members), a perspective begins to be created. From just 5 of the 35 members of The Iceberg, over $3.5 million is generated in annual revenue. This becomes an important economic development statistic as we grow the facility and stress its importance to the region.

Sponsors, Partners and Donors – We have been fortunate to have a great group of partners, sponsors and donors. Each bring not only their support but an involvement in the community that is unprecedented. Each of these groups have pledged not only their financial support but their willingness to be involved and provided their expertise to members in order to help each become successful. These groups and individuals have a diverse set of backgrounds as well, including venture capital, accounting, legal, retail, accelerators, and more. Each of these, continue to further strengthen The Iceberg’s arsenal of resources, experience, expertise and support.

These amazing partners, sponsors and donors have contributed over $70k financially in order to help us with rent and utility costs, resource and event costs, and much more.

The Iceberg’s Member City Reach – One of the most surprising discoveries is the reach that the Iceberg has had from a membership standpoint. In just 2 months time, we have gained memberships from more than 8 cities. Not only is The Iceberg serving as an economic and community catalyst for Fayetteville, but has reached people all throughout Northwest Arkansas, the River Valley and Central Arkansas. As The Iceberg continues to grow, and offer more resources and opportunities, we hope to broaden a reach for community and support on the State and Region that is unprecedented.

One Place. – This coworking space represents so much more than just a place to rent a desk and to work. It represents a place to grow, support, hangout, learn and meet. It represents a community.

This data only represents a fraction of what we have been able to achieve in just the first two months of this initiative. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be gaining more data on our members and their companies as well as the events that have been held and more. This will allow us to better frame the importance of The Iceberg in Northwest Arkansas and ultimately the State of Arkansas.

If you are interested in becoming a member, sign up today! The Iceberg could not be possible today without its sponsors, partners, and donors. This is a facility that must be supported by the community in order to keep the momentum it needs to accomplish all it can for this region and to remain a catalyst for business, creative, and community development. If interested in helping to support The Iceberg, please email me at joshclemence@gmail.com.

Final Thought: I believe that The Iceberg has the chance to be a catalyst for a new era of community in Northwest Arkansas. I believe that it can begin to attract like minded individuals, groups and organizations from all over the Region, State and Midwest and allow for them to have a presence in one place. I believe that the opportunities that The Iceberg gives entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers and others is unprecedented. The ability for one to go to a centrally located facility in order to receive fresh, perspective, experience, insight, resources, support and more is critical as we further put in place initiatives to help small businesses be successful.

This is about something much larger than myself, much larger than NWAEA, and much larger than The Iceberg. This is about a community catalyst that not only brings people together, but helps them become successful, and supports them wholeheartedly and authentically.

What an end of the year it was for me.  I do not know that I could have started 2011 any better.  Well, the Razorbacks could have pulled off the win in the Sugar Bowl, but that discussion could last days.

I have two new years resolutions that will effect this blog.

1.  I am going to try and get into a routine.  I have said this a number of times and at times the routine actually began to work.  Problem is I handle the blog at NWAEA, I do blogging at StyleBy.Me, Megan and I just started building out wedding website which includes a blog, which doesn’t leave too much more to talk about here.  BUT have no fear, I will at least be posting once a week.

2.  I will read one book a month.  At first that does not sound too impressive, but for me it is.  To take the time to read a full book has been hard for me.  I have read 3 books in the past year.  After I read these books I will write up a post on what I took from the book and some of the highlights AND if I think you should read or not.  My own reviews!!

UPDATES:

- Crav’s first product, PicnicWithMe is still in private beta.  We will be adding more and more users in the next two weeks as well as venues.  I am excited to share more about this soon as it has been a long time coming.

- StyleBy.Me continues to grow and grow.  Since I last wrote, SBM has celebrated 1 month since launch, has expanded, held a contest and brought on two very very talented interns who are now a part of the growing family.  We keep adding new users, bloggers, and advertisers.  This has been an extremely fun startup thus far.

Stats to date:

Launched 1.5 months ago.
37,000+ Page views
8,000+ Unique users
47,000+ Facebook Post Views
150+ Local Style Submissions
30+ Local Voice Posts

- I have partnered with a very good friend in Boulder, CO to start building a stealth iphone product.  It should be a really cool product and we are very excited about it.

- NWAEA is gearing up for the Spring.  We are planning quite a few events and a lot of opportunities for local entrepreneurs to connect.

- I am excited to be a judge for the 2011 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup

- I have joined the Acumen Holdings team.  I can’t express how excited I am at this opportunity.  I have joined a team led by two people I look up to and respect greatly.  I will write more about this later this week.

I just wanted to hit briefly on some of the things that are going on.  Some of these you will notice full posts about in the very near future, so keep checking back.  Have a great week!